Think Social Capital Before You Think Knowledge Transfer

Abstract

Knowledge transfer has been promoted as a critical and necessary condition for organizations to sustain competitive advantage. In this paper, we argue that successful transfer of knowledge within organizations will depend on the accumulated social capital embedded within organizational social networks. We pose social capital as critical factor for knowledge transfer and hypothesize that the structural, relational and cognitive dimensions of social capital must be developed within an organization for knowledge transfer to impact organizational performance. The study uses data collected from Egypt to test the model. Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Model is used to explain how cultural attributes limit the accumulation of social capital and the effectiveness of knowledge transfer in developing countries.